Handel concedes to Deal in Ga. runoff

Former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel conceded defeat Wednesday to former Rep. Nathan Deal in the Republican runoff for governor.

The move avoids a costly recount and allows Deal to focus on the fall campagn against former Gov. Roy Barnes. With 99.9 percent of precincts reporting, Deal was ahead by a narrow margin of 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent — just under 2,500 votes.

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Handel won the July 20 seven-candidate primary over Deal by 11 points, but in Tuesday's vote Deal was able to greatly improve upon his performance three weeks ago, winning key support in the state's rural counties and shoring up wide margins in his home base of Northeast Georgia and surrounding counties. Handel performed strongly in the metro-Atlanta region and her home base of Fulton County, and also picked up counties along the coast.

Deal spokesman Brian Robinson pointed to that surge as evidence they had run the stronger runoff campaign.

"What Nathan Deal accomplished tonight was monumental," Robinson told POLITICO. "We were 11 points down in the primary and we came roaring back. That means that over the last three weeks we have not only won the head-to-head battle, we've won big."

"We are extraordinarily proud of where we are tonight," Robinson added, saying they, "feel very confident that our lead is going to hold and that [Deal] is going to be the nominee,"

Georgia Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Everhart said she wasn't surprised by the close margin and the late night.

"It looks like the 2000 Florida presidential race, but we're having it in 2010 in Georgia," Everhart told POLITICO shortly after 11 p.m. on Tuesday, when the Associated Press announced it would not project a winner.

The race's tight margin mirrored the tenor of the entire campaign, with both candidates shooting barbs at each other in what became a bitter runoff between the former congressman and the former Georgia secretary of state.

Despite beginning the race as the frontrunner, Handel seized on the growing cloud around Deal stemming from a House complaint over work his congressional office allegedly did to benefit his auto salvage business. More recently, a federal grand jury called a state official to testify on the matter, and although Deal's campaign has insisted he is not a target of the probe, Handel ran ads calling him a "corrupt relic of Washington."